Forgive your equipment suppliers if they’ve been a bit winded these days.
“The standard conversation in the industry is that they’d never seen anything like 2021,” says Dennis Howard, vice president for Deere and Vermeer dealer RDO Equipment. “It was all demand and no supply.”
Surfing pandemic uncertainties, supply chain constraints, labor shortages and surging demand, the construction equipment industry is “a machine that’s low on oil and almost out of it,” says Benjamin Duyck, director of market intelligence for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers in reporting on the industry’s supply-and-demand issues in February.
“Demand for new equipment was across the board, from quarry to mid-range to compact,” says Jason Hurdis, global market professional, Caterpillar.
“We’re hearing from OEMs and dealers that they could have sold 10%, 15%, 20% more if they only had the machines,” says Chris Sleight, managing director, Off-Highway Research, speaking during the Feb. 4th Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inside Edge webinar.
With used equipment, “anything that was newer, well maintained from good homes continued to set new pricing records,” says Doug Olive, senior vice president, pricing and appraisals, Ritchie.
